i'm a livewire (we're gonna set this town on fire)
by piperreynas
Summary: annabeth lives in a world where everyone has a soulmate. you can feel what they feel and read what they write, and she doesn't want any part of it. percy/annabeth.
1. Chapter 1

For Annabeth, the whole soulmate thing starts in class her eighth grade year.

Well not really. Her soulmarks appear in eighth grade. She's been feeling things that aren't hers for as long as she can remember. She remembers feeling sadness and despair and fear so profound, even at the age of five, that she couldn't breathe let along go to school. She remembers that one day where she closed eyes and felt the ocean against her feet, felt chocolate melting on her tongue.

Her soulmarks aren't nearly as pleasant. The sudden burning feeling on her wrist hurts so much that she immediately drops her pen and almost falls out of her chair. She hears her teacher calling for the nurse in the distance as her vision begins to fade.

The last thing she thinks before she passes out is screw this.

* * *

She wakes up to the nurse's smiling face. "Congratulations, Annabeth!" she says. Annabeth pulls her sleeve to see a messy scrawl all over wrist.

"What the..."

"Your soulmarks have started coming in!" The nurse keeps smiling, waiting for Annabeth to answer.

Annabeth studies her wrist. "Can I have an icepack?"

The nurse tsks sympathetically, pitching forward as Annabeth nearly keels over. If the idiot on the other end doesn't stop drawing stupid shit she's going to-

She feels a laugh crawl up the back of her throat, but it only serves to make her angrier.

"I'm afraid an ice pack isn't going to help, dear," the nurse says, frowning as Annabeth glares at nothing in particular.

"Is there anything that will?" Annabeth asks desperately, staring at the upside words on her wrist. The nurse shakes her head.

 _lighten up a little, would u?_ it reads.

Annabeth scowls, picks up her backpack, and marches out of the room. She almost falls a few more times on her way back to class. When her hands slam into the tiled walls _again_ , she feels his concern almost as strongly as if it were hers and it makes her day maybe a little better. She spends the rest of the afternoon in silent agony because her soulmate, whoever they are, cannot stop doodling and she fucking hates them for it.

She writes **STOP** on her arm in Sharpie, big enough to cover up their writing as soon as she gets home.

The first thing they do is write back. _i'm percy_ , apppears sideways on her wrist, barely legible.

 _Please stop_ , she writes back.

He doesn't. (Or is it a she?)

She ignores them, in as much as that's possible in her current situation, and tries to focus on her math homework until five minutes later a starfish with four arms sears itself onto her other arm forcing her to admit defeat. She grabs a pint of her favorite ice cream and sits down in front of the television. The is half empty twenty minutes later.

Annabeth wakes up the next morning, feeling like hot needles are being pressed to her skin. It's better than yesterday, she muses, although she still feels like strangling whoever's on the other side.

 _you know you're gonna have to answer at some point_? is scrawled near her elbow. She ignores them and walks into her bathroom

 _I know_. _This is me replying: please stop._ Annabeth glares at her reflection in the mirror. _Douche,_ she thinks, angrily pulling up her sleeve.

 _what's your name_? he asks one day. She doesn't respond. _oh come on. i told u mine. it doesn't even have to be ur real name. i won't know the difference._

 _Will you stop if I tell you_? Annabeth writes back, gritting her teeth.

 _sure_ he responds, adding a lopsided winky face for good measure.

She remembers her grandmother and writes, _Kate_

 _pretty name_ , appears on the back of her hand.

 _You can stop now_.

 _never told u when i'd stop,_ appears on the inside of her wrist, along with another winky face. Annabeth throws her pen against the wall in frustration. She swears she can hear him laughing.

 _now you really have to write smth_ , he writes back the next day. _we both know im not stopping_.

Annabeth sighs angrily, resigned. _What do you want?_ She feels his amusement almost as if it's her own.

 _2 get 2 know u_

 _What does that entail, exactly_?

 _guess you'll just have to find out._ Annabeth can almost hear the snark in his voice. She tries to picture him, tries to imagine the expression on his face.

 _What's your full name then?_

 _thought u weren't interested_

 _We were gonna have to do this at some point_.

There's a bit if a pause before she feels the stinging and sees _perseus jackson._

 _Annabeth Chase_ ," she writes back.

 _i can't believe u lied to me :(._ She laughs and lets herself believe that this will work out despite all the evidence stacked against it (read: Frederick and Athena Chase).

* * *

She likes to say his name, likes the way the syllables fall off her tongue, natural and familiar even though she hasn't seen him at all. It makes her feel...closer to him somehow, hearing his name as opposed to seeing them. She wonders, sometimes if he's doing the same thing she is, whispering her name to the mirror like it's a secret.

The room is empty, hell the whole house is empty, but it still feels like someone's listening in, trying to steal the peculiar intimacy of saying her soulmate's name aloud. "Perseus Jackson," she whispers to the wall.

She gets to know him a lot better over the next few months. His favorite color is blue, he's obsessed with the ocean, he loves his mother more than anything and nothing, not even her, is going to change that. She tells him about her too, about how her mom left and how her dad never talks to her anynore and how she liked to paint when everything was still okay.

She likes feeling the pain that comes with talking to him, likes pressing down on the words he writes into her skin trying to feel that again. She remembers how she used to loathe him for making her feel the pain of the needles that surely exist under her skin, and wonders how she could've ever hated him for something that makes her feel so happy. The concern and happiness that he sends her way makes her feel wanted and loved and she would never ever give that up.

* * *

Annabeth's mother comes back on her birthday. Someone rings the doorbell and she knows something's up when her father rises out of his favorite chair to answer. He doesn't know who's on the other side when he does, but she thinks later that maybe he had an inkling because they're still soulmates, regardless of whatever happened between them.

She doesn't say anything when her dad opens the door, and Annabeth doesn't realize who it is at first until she remembers a picture that sits in a dark corner on father desk and takes a look at her father's broken expression. He doesn't look like he's going to say anything, so she speaks for him.

"What do you want?"

Athena blinks. "I...can I come in?"

Annabeth looks at her dad and so does Athena. He sighs, pulls the door back a little farther and steps aside. Athena smiles awkwardly. This time her dad speaks.

"Why are you here, Athena?" he asks, and he sounds so weary, so tired.

"I wanted to get to know my daughter."

He laughs. "No you don't. If you had wanted to get to know her, you wouldn't have left."

Her mother sighs. "Look, I know I made a mistake and I...I shouldn't have left and I'm _sorry._ But I'm back now and that counts for something right?"

Her father takes a long look at Athena. "Annabeth, why don't you go out for a minute, and I'll sort this out with your mother."

"But I-"

"Go. She'll be here when you come back. Promise." He gives her a small smile, that she returns. It feels good to be able to say her _father_ is going to take care of her.

* * *

She hears laughing when she gets back.

"Remember when you threatened to leave if all of your chairs weren't the same color," her dad is saying. He hasn't sounded this happy in years.

"Remember when you were so anal you ha to write on top of a yardstick," Athena shoots back.

"Touche," her father says, smiling brighter than he ever has. She feels a pit in the bottom of her stomach.

"I missed this," her mother says smiling.

Her father's smile collapses. "Then why'd you leave?"

"You know why," she says quietly. "I was scared. I didn't know what to do."

The pit opens wider. Annabeth backs away, horrified. _They lost this because of me_ , she thinks. Then she leaves. She walks out the door, takes one step, then two, then three, and then she's running. She feels Percy's worry mixed in with her resenment and self-loathing, but she's too far gone to care. _I did thi_ s, she thinks.

She stops once, looks down at her hands. " _you okay?"_ she sees.

For the first time in a long time, she doesn't know.

* * *

notes: i'm a little dissapointed in this one, so i'm probably gonna edit it soon. but for now, please please read and review!


	2. Chapter 2

Annabeth returns home three hours later because, as it turns out, it's very difficult to survive on your own for long on six sandwich cookies and ten dollars. She feels Percy's relief almost as soon as she steps across the threshold. It's so strong that it almost feels like it could be her relief. Her parents (she nearly trips over those words) are waiting for her when she gets back.

"Annabeth! Where did you go?" Her father asks when he sees her just standing in the doorway.

Annabeth is surprised he noticed she was gone. She shrugs and shuts the door with more force than is probably required. The walls shake a little. "Out," she says shortly.

Frederick gives her a skeptical look. "...Right. Well in any case, you should probably talk to your mother," he says, gesturing with the hand that he's placed over her mother's shoulders.

Athena smiles welcomingly and pats the sofa cushion next to her as an invitation. "We definitely have a lot to talk about."

All of the self-loathing and worry returns at the sight of her parents sitting together, but another emotion overpowers both: anger. Anger at her mother for waltzing back after all these years and expecting Annabeth and Frederick to forgive her, at her father for falling apart as soon as she left. She doesn't move or say anything.

Her father, mistaking her silent refusal for hesitation, stands, saying, "I can leave if you want."

She smiles bitterly. "Don't bother. I have nothing to say to her," she responds, climbing the stairs and locking herself in her room. Her arm begins to tingle as she falls backward onto her mattress and she looks down to see Percy's written _what happened?_

She exhales slowly and considers writing _nothing_ , considers not answering at all; instead, she writes _my mother came back_.

Percy doesn't do anything for a few minutes but she can feel his worry and confusion and anxiousness. Finally, he writes, _well fuck._ Annabeth laughs.

* * *

Athena is nowhere to be seen when Annabeth trudges down the stairs next morning, however her jacket has been thrown over one arm of the couch and her boots have been placed neatly by the door. Her father is slowly drinking a cup of coffee in his study. "Dad?" She looks around the house cautiously. She feels Percy's curiosity as she pads into the kitchen.

Her father doesn't answer. She hears him slurp his coffee. "Dad?"

"Annabeth," her father responds calmly.

"Where's mom?" she asks.

"She's checked into a hotel."

Annabeth pauses. "So she'll be staying in San Francisco?"

"For an indeterminate period of time, yes," Frederick says, coming out of his study to gauge her reaction. "I'm sure it won't be for long," he adds hastily.

"Right," Annabeth says flatly. "I'm going back up to my room."

"Well aren't you hungry?" he asks cautiously.

"Lost my apetite," she snarls, flinging her door shut. Tears start to from in her eyes as she becomes even angrier. She cautiously reaches across the bond to find Percy, calm for the moment being; happy, and lets the feeling envelop her, lets her breathing slow and her tears recede. _b_ _etter_ _?_ Percy writes. She laughs wetly. _yeah_ _:)._

* * *

She goes to school the next day and tries to pretend that nothing's happened. It works pretty well, as far as she's concerned. If anyone think she's been acting strange, they don't mention it. It's better this way. She doesn't have to sit through unhelpful counseling sessions, and she can go home and avoid her parents by doing useless homework.

Percy doesn't seem to think so. _you should talk to her_ he writes on her calf. She ignores him. She comes home and her mother reaches for her as soon as she sets her things down, trying to pull her into the kitchen. She pushes past her and heads for her room.

She doesn't know what her parents want from her; if she did have a heart-to-heart with her mother, her first and only words would be, "fuck you, we're both fine," (a lie) and she knows her parents wouldn't appreciate that.

This is what she tells her father when he corners her into a conversation a week later (maybe not using those exact words, but the sentinment is properly conveyed regardless). Her father merely heaves a sigh, and after this conversation he decides to leave her alone. When her mother visists the next day she doesn't make any efforts to reach out to Annabeth, and Annabeth, satisfied with this turn of events, heads up to her room. The door stays unlocked.

The next week Athena walks straight past her to sit next to her father on the couch and Annabeth scowls, feeling angrier than she had the week before when Athena seemed cloyingly sweet. She stomps her way up the staircase and she can feel Percy's smugness. She scowls harder and chucks a throw pillow at the door. She doesn't finish her homework. The following weeks leave even more angry, and she becomes more and more restless as she tries to ascertain the cause.

Percy stays silent through the whole ordeal, but she knows that he's practically dying to say something. He's always been more astute than her whe it comes to interpersonal things and sometimes she wants to let him speak, but then she realizes how unbearably smug he would be and decides against it. After all, this is her family. Soulmate or not, she's going to see this through on her own.

Weeks turn into months, her grades drop (a minor inconvenience) as she puzzles over her emotions, but it doesn't come to her until the end of the summer before her freshman year. She _wants_ her mother to try, she realizes, and her mother wants to try for Annabeth, and she lived in a cheap San Francisco hotel for three months waiting for her to want it too.

She can feel Percy on the other end losing his shit as he realizes she's finally figured it out. _can't belive it took you this long, wise girl_, he writes. _shut up seaweed brain,_ she writes back.

* * *

The next week, her mother takes her usual seat on the couch and five minutes into their documentary, Frederick leaves to go buy milk. Annabeth makes sure he's gone before she troops down the stairs and takes her father's seat on the sofa. Her mother does a double take and then turns her attention back to the television. "Annabeth," she says. Her voice wavers a little on the last syllable.

Annabeth considers her response for a minute and instead of _fuck you we're both fine,_ she says, "Why did you leave?"

Athena blinks. "I wasn't prepared-"

Annabeth snorts. "Bullshit," she states. "Why did you really leave?"

Athena turns to her, the documentary forgotten. "I guess...I wanted more out of life than what we had. I thought you would hold me back."

Annabeth nods, somehow still angry, yet at peace with Athena's answer. She takes a second to really look at her mother, imagines her at age twenty two with a baby girl to raise and a head full of ideas and dreams and wishes, wonders what she would've done.

She nods again, and then she gets up and shuts herself in her room again. She still hasn't forgiven her yet, and she doesn't think she ever wwill, but she thinks she might be willing to try.

 _better?_ Percy echoes. He feels calm; happy. She smiles down at her arm. _yeah :)._

* * *

notes: athena's really really ooc in this fic bc a) everyone's human in this fic, and b) i wnated to give everyone a happy ending. and in trying to bring that baout i turned this into annabeth-centric fic as opposed to a percabeth-centric fic, but oh well. worse things have happened.  
\+ fin., for now  
\+ find me on tumblr (url: piperreynas)  
\+ please don't hesitate to let me know what y'all think.


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